Another View: N-word penalty proposal offends some blacks

The Fritz Pollard Alliance, which monitors racial diversity in the NFL, believes "there is too much disrespect in the game," says Chairman John Wooten. One of the group's proposed remedies is generating controversy because it runs counter to popular culture among many black Americans.

The group has proposed to the NFL's competition committee that players using the n-word on the field of play be assessed a 15-yard penalty. If embraced by the committee when it meets, the change will go to team owners for a final vote.

The proposal follows a statement issued in November by Wooten and Alliance Executive Director Harry Carson, both of whom are black, urging players to stop using the word: "As former players (along with thousands of others) who have worked hard in different eras of the game to leave proud legacies for those who follow us, we are appalled and extremely disappointed to learn that the worst and most derogatory word ever spoken in our country is being used during games as well as casually in the locker room."

The rule could be expanded to include other derogatory terms, such as homophobic slurs.

Some criticism of the measure has focused on whether it's enforceable.

"I think it's going to be really tough to legislate this rule, to find a way to penalize everyone who uses this word," said Ryan Clark of the Pittsburgh Steelers. "And it's not going to be white players using it toward black players. Most of the time you hear it, it's black players using the word."

The proposal has triggered a debate among black Americans about the word's use in popular culture.

"People can be upset with me if they want," said Michael Wilbon of ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption." "I, like a whole lot of people, use the n-word all day every day my whole life," says the black journalist. "I have a problem with white people framing the discussion for the use of the n-word."

"White America don't get to dictate how me and Shaq talk to each other," said former NBA star Charles Barkley

Other blacks see it differently.

"We have bought the false narrative promoted by rappers and the corporations that pay rappers to make black-denigration music that the n-word has been stripped of its power to denigrate. We foolishly believe that religiously using the slur given to us by enslavers who saw us as subhuman is a righteous act of defiance against The Man," wrote ESPN's Jason Whitlock.

With the penalty proposed, it will be difficult for NFL owners not to approve it. To reject it would imply they condone its use. That's also why it's likely that other words will be added to the banned list so that the league will not appear to be singling out one group for special protection.

It's important to remember that an NFL football field is not the street, it's a workplace. The league has the right, the responsibility, to ensure that workers in the environment conduct themselves in a professional manner.

When NFL owners do vote, it will be interesting to see where Daniel Snyder falls on the issue. Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, has rejected pleas to change the team's nickname, which is viewed by many native Americans to be as offensive as the n-word.

-The Nashua (N.H.) Telegraph

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Another View: N-word penalty proposal offends some blacks

The Fritz Pollard Alliance, which monitors racial diversity in the NFL, believes 'there is too much disrespect in the game,' says Chairman John Wooten.